An Efficient Authentication Protocol for Smart Grid Communication Based on On-Chip-Error-Correcting Physical Unclonable Function

Security has become a main concern for the smart grid to move from research and development to industry. The concept of security has usually referred to resistance to threats by an active or passive attacker. However, since smart meters (SMs) are often placed in unprotected areas, physical security has become one of the important security goals in the smart grid. Physical unclonable functions (PUFs) have been largely utilized for ensuring physical security in recent years, though their reliability has remained a major problem to be practically used in cryptographic applications. Although fuzzy extractors have been considered as a solution to solve the reliability problem of PUFs, they put a considerable computational cost to the resource-constrained SMs. To that end, we first propose an on-chip-error-correcting (OCEC) PUF that efficiently generates stable digits for the authentication process. Afterward, we introduce a lightweight authentication protocol between the SMs and neighborhood gateway (NG) based on the proposed PUF. The provable security analysis shows that not only the proposed protocol can stand secure in the Canetti-Krawczyk (CK) adversary model but also provides additional security features. Also, the performance evaluation demonstrates the significant improvement of the proposed scheme in comparison with the state-of-the-art

State of the Art and Future Prospects of Virtual and Augmented Reality in Veterinary Medicine: A Systematic Review

Virtual reality and augmented reality are new but rapidly expanding topics in medicine. In virtual reality, users are immersed in a three-dimensional environment, whereas in augmented reality, computer-generated images are superimposed on the real world. Despite advances in human medicine, the number of published articles in veterinary medicine is low. These cutting-edge technologies can be used in combination with existing methods in veterinary medicine to achieve diagnostic/therapeutic and educational goals. The purpose of our review was to evaluate studies for their use of virtual reality and augmented reality in veterinary medicine, as well as human medicine with animal trials, to report results and the state of the art. We collected all of the articles we included in our review by screening the Scopus, PubMed, and Web of Science databases. Of the 24 included studies, 11 and 13 articles belonged to virtual reality and augmented reality, respectively. Based on these articles, we determined that using these technologies has a positive impact on the scientific output of students and residents, can reduce training costs, and can be used in training/educational programs. Furthermore, using these tools can promote ethical standards. We reported the absence of standard operation protocols and equipment costs as study limitations

Evaluation of the Femoral and Tibial Alignments in Dogs: A Systematic Review

The assessment of limb conformations in veterinary orthopedics is a significant tool used to determine the quantitative degree of limb malalignments. As in human medicine, various studies have been undertaken in veterinary medicine to determine the values in different dog breeds and to determine the values in healthy and diseased dogs. The objectives of this systematic review were to evaluate the reported values in these articles separately, to compile the standard values, and to compare the values between dogs with and without various orthopedic diseases. All of the articles included in this systematic review were collected by screening the Scopus, PubMed/Medline, and Web of Science databases. The articles were evaluated according to the measured alignments, imaging methods, dog breeds, and the health status of the dogs. Each alignment was investigated separately, and the results are summarized. Twenty-nine studies were included in this systematic review. According to the studies, in the frontal plane, distal femoral alignments, as well as proximal and distal tibial alignments, corresponded to the severity of the medial patellar luxation. The difference between affected and non-affected dogs with cranial cruciate ligament disease was limited to the proximal tibial alignments in the sagittal plane

Femoral and tibial alignments in chihuahuas with patellar luxation by radiograph: Angular values and intra- and inter-observer agreement of measurements.

Measurement of fore and pelvic limb alignment in veterinary orthopedics is significant, as it is in human medicine. The establishment of reference ranges for alignments and comparing measured ranges in diseased animals to these reference values would allow veterinarians to specify the quantitative degree of an angular deformity, plan suitable treatments and evaluate treatment outcomes. Patellar luxation is a common orthopedic disease in small animal clinics. Severe grades of MPL may present with bone deformities or abnormal alignments; therefore, evaluation of the measurement methods of femoral and tibial alignment in dogs with different grades of patellar luxation to assess the accuracy and reliability of the measurements could be useful. In this retrospective study radiographs of 21 client-owned Chihuahuas that had been presented to the Small Animal Surgery of Vetmeduni Vienna from 2012-2016 with a diagnose of patellar luxation were selected. The measurements were performed on frontal, lateral and axial view radiographs to determine the femoral and tibial angles and to evaluate the intra- and inter-observer variabilities of the protocol. Radiographs of each dog were investigated by three observers. Intra-observer variability was based on measurements by each observer who repeated the protocol two times to evaluate repeatability. Inter-observer variability was based on the measurements between the three observers to evaluate the reproducibility of the protocol. The results of the study showed that 92.85% of inter-observer ICC (intra-class correlation coefficient) had high correlation, and the remaining 7.15% had good correlation. Intra-observer ICCs for measurements of the first observer were 28.57% high correlation and 50% good correlation. For the second observer, 100% high correlation was recorded, and for the third observer 71.42% high correlation and 14.28% good correlation was recorded. These results show that the selected methods have high correlation and could be used as a reliable method in veterinary orthopedics

On the security of ‘an ultra‐lightweight and secure scheme for communications of smart metres and neighbourhood gateways by utilisation of an ARM Cortex‐M microcontroller’

Abstract In 2018, Abbasinezhad‐Mood and Nikooghadam (IEEE Transaction on Smart Grid, pp 6194–6205, 9(6), 2018) proposed an ultra‐lightweight secure scheme for neighbourhood area network (NAN $oldsymbol{N}oldsymbol{A}oldsymbol{N}$) communications in smart grid. They have claimed that their protocol is secure against all known attacks in NAN $oldsymbol{N}oldsymbol{A}oldsymbol{N}$ environment by providing informal security analysis besides a formal analysis which was done by using an automatic verification tool. However, by performing several attacks, this study shows that their scheme has serious security flaws. After performing each attack, lightweight countermeasures is proposed for securing their protocol against that attack

Early Diagnosis of Canine Hip Laxity: Correlation between Clinical Orthopedic Examinations and the FCI Scoring Method in a Closed Cohort of Rottweilers

Canine hip dysplasia is a multifactorial disorder characterized by hip laxity and osteoarthritis. The early diagnosis of hip laxity is an important topic in small animal orthopedics. This study aimed to evaluate the correlation between clinical orthopedic examinations and the Fédération Cynologique Internationale (FCI) scoring method. Thirty purebred Rottweilers were examined at approximately four (20 ± 2 weeks), eight (35 ± 2 weeks), and twelve months of age (54 ± 1 weeks), respectively. The Ortolani, Barlow, and Bardens tests and reduction/subluxation angle measurements were performed at each time. FCI scoring was conducted at the third examination time. Positive correlations were recorded between the reduction angle and Ortolani test, reduction angle and FCI score, and Ortolani test and FCI score for the second and third examination dates. No correlation was observed between the subluxation angle and other methods. Despite previous studies reporting 16–20 weeks as the earliest age for diagnosing hip laxity in dogs, in our study, early diagnosis was possible from the age of 35 ± 2 weeks. This difference might originate from the small sample size, low number of the dogs with severe grades of laxity, and breed differences

Effect of Vision and Surface Slope on Postural Sway in Healthy Adults: A Prospective Cohort Study

Postural stability requires an interaction between cognitive, perceptual, sensory, and motor functions. Thus, impairment in any of these systems may affect postural balance. This study assessed the effect of visual input and surface slope on postural stability. The study was conducted on healthy participants, 11 females and 11 males who were 24–34 years of age. They were asked to perform still upright bipedal standing on flat and +/−20° sloped surfaces with eyes open (EO) and closed (EC). Six center of pressure (COP) parameters were measured by posturography. A significant relationship was observed between COP parameters, standing conditions, and body mass index. Gender had no significant effect on the COP. The loss of visual input within each standing condition did not affect the COP parameters. In contrast, differences were observed between standing on a flat surface and uphill with EC and between standing on a flat surface and downhill with EC and EO. When the participants were standing on inclined surfaces, the loss of vision significantly increased the postural instability. Young healthy adults demonstrated the greatest difficulty in standing uphill with EC. This was followed by standing downhill with EC and standing downhill with EO

Radiographic Diagnosis of Hip Laxity in Rottweilers: Interobserver Agreement at Eight- and Twelve-Months of Age

Hip laxity is one of the predisposing factors of canine hip dysplasia. The early diagnosis of hip laxity allows veterinarians to prevent the participation of dysplastic dogs in breeding programs, which could lower the disease’s prevalence due to its genetic background. Furthermore, it allows them to plan preventive/therapeutic procedures for mild/near-normal hips to reduce the symptoms of the disease at older ages. A reliable screening program must be repeatable and reproducible, and intra- and inter-observer studies can help us to determine the best methods. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the radiographic parameters used for the early diagnosis of hip dysplasia in Rottweilers at 8 and 12 months of age with five observers to assess the interobserver agreements. According to our findings, there were high interobserver agreements at both ages for the quantitative values, such as the center edge angle (CEA), dorsal acetabular rim slope (DARS), distraction index (DI), and Norberg angle (NA), whereas we recorded from poor to moderate agreements for the qualitative values, such as the grading of the dorsal acetabular rim (GDAR), grading of the degenerative joint disease (GDJD), location of the center of the femoral head (LCFH), and sclerosis of the cranial acetabular rim (SCAR)

Inter-Observer Agreement in Radiographic Diagnosis of Coxofemoral Joint Disease in a Closed Cohort of Four-Month-Old Rottweilers

Canine hip dysplasia is a complex and multifactorial disease. The early diagnosis of dysplastic dogs under one year of age helps veterinarians to plan proper preventive/therapeutic methods. Having an accurate screening method increases the chance of the early detection of dysplasia. The goal of our study was to assess the inter-observer reliability of eight radiographic parameters in four-month-old Rottweilers. Radiographs of the 28 Rottweilers were investigated by five experienced observers. The radiographs were taken in ventrodorsal view with extended legs, frog-leg ventrodorsal view, distraction view, and dorsal acetabular rim view. Four quantitative parameters such as Norberg angle (NA), distraction index (DI), dorsal acetabular rim slope (DARS), and center edge angle (CEA) and four qualitative parameters such as sclerosis of the cranial acetabular rim (SCAR), location of the center of the femoral head (LCFH), grading of the degenerative joint disease (GDJD), and grading of the dorsal acetabular rim (GDAR) were evaluated. High inter-observer agreements were recorded for quantitative values, whereas the inter-observer agreement of the qualitative parameters was low. It can be deduced that the evaluated quantitative parameters are reliable, and a combination of these methods with clinical examinations might increase the accuracy of the examinations